Downtown Shell Station, Old Exxon Station Next Up For Redevelopment

A pair of public meetings on coming downtown Bethesda redevelopment projects are scheduled for next week.

On Tuesday, July 9 at 7 p.m., Bethesda-based developer Bainbridge will present plans for a mixed-use apartment project with ground floor retail at 7340 Wisconsin Ave., the long vacated Exxon gas station across the street from the Bethesda Metro station.

In December, planner Margaret Rifkin said Bainbridge was talking to the Planning Department about an apartment project there. She used the example to illustrate the increasing rate of residential development proposals, even in close-to-the Metro sites where planners envisioned employment centers.

“The core of Bethesda in the sector plan is designed as an employment core and we’ve been increasingly getting proposals coming in for residential,” Rifkin said. “We’ve had several different developers come in who would like to do residential. We all love residential, but we also have to honor our sector plan. So we are going to be very careful about how we frame that issue of consistency with the sector plan.”

Bainbridge will be represented by attorneys from Bethesda-based Linowes and Blocher.

Also presenting a development proposal next week will be attorney Chris Ruhlen, from Bethesda-based Lerch, Early and Brewer. It’s unknown who is developing the 7628 Old Georgetown Rd. site or what sort of project is being proposed. We left a message with Ruhlen.

The property is now an operating Shell gas station, one of the few remaining in the Central Business District.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 11. Both meetings will happen at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center (4805 Edgemoor Lane).